


the rise

by manbunjon



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fix-It, Happy Ending, TRoS Spoilers, The Rise of Skywalker spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-25 05:34:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21910804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/manbunjon/pseuds/manbunjon
Summary: They were meant to give up their strength to regain his power, to be used to restore the legacy he had built upon the backs of a thousand dead Jedi.But instead they stand together, the Last Skywalker and the Jedi from Jakku, two halves of the dyad that had been birthed by the Force and nurtured by fate, two halves of the same whole.or, what should have happened in the rise of skywalker
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 11
Kudos: 269
Collections: The Rise of Skywalker: Fix-It Fic Edition





	the rise

The icy mist has birthed a wetness to his clothes that has him shifting in discomfort, the loose fabric sticking to his arms and the small of his back. It had been a few moments since Ben Solo had first blinked back into consciousness, moaning softly in a vain attempt to expel the pain from his chest. 

Sparks of pain shoot through him like bolts of the lightning that had imprisoned him there, and though his eyes remain closed Ben knows that had they been open, he would be able to see the true extent of his injuries. The fall was great, greater still with the cold chill of the air and the echo of Sidious' dark laughter.

But it seemed the strength of his soul was greater, and though his body was battered and broken, Ben remained.

And yet the pain was great, so awesomely, terribly great, that for a moment Ben felt paralyzed. As though he had been razed with flame and doused with icy water, as though he had been broken apart and stitched back together too many times to count. For it seemed that with the name of Ben Solo, the pain of the boy had returned.

He was no longer Kylo Ren, the infamous Supreme Leader, known across the galaxy as a man of no mercy, who could hide every emotion behind a helm of black steel. He was no longer able to mask his true expressions, his true self, as his grandfather once had. He was Ben Solo, son of Leia and Han, nephew of Luke, grandson of Padmé and Anakin. He was the blood of the Solos, the Nabberie's, the Organas. The last Skywalker. He could sit up.

Every instinct in his body was on edge, reaching for her. For Rey.

He groaned, thinking of her so far above, so far out of reach. Facing down Darth Sidious without aid, as his grandfather and his uncle once had.

Flashes of memory sparked through him, so crystal clear that it was as though his body had fallen back through time. The forests of Takodana, the weight of her body in his arms, the way she had resisted him, as though her mind was a barred trap. The way she had called to him, called his name, his true name, how her fingertips had brushed across his, so warm and smooth that even lightyears away he had been able to feel them.

Ben lets his head droop to the side, so tired that he could barely breathe. He can feel blood slip down his cheek from where his skin had split upon the bone of his brow, tongue tasting metal from the blood that seeped from his bruised lips into his mouth.

There was a dull humming in the air, a thrumming of the Force that made him lift his eyes.

The chasm he had been thrown into was dark as pitch, the mist too heavy and too dark to see through. He wondered what waited for him in the darkness, just out of sight, just out of reach. As far away from him as Rey.

“These are your finals steps, Ben.” says the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi, so close that it seemed as though he stood just out of reach, as though his body was being hidden by the darkness. “Rise and take them.”

"Rise, Ben." calls Ahsoka Tano. At his side Ben's bloodied fingers twitch. He wonders when the pain will fade, when he will once again see the faces of his parents, when he will die.

"Rise." says Kanan. Ben can see Snoke's crimson throne room set aflame, the Imperial guards, the way he had fought at her side, had been so proud to fight beside her. How he had killed the man who had spent so many years delighting in the torture of him, the man who had hurt her. "Rise, Ben."

Ben's eyes clear as his gaze shifts into focus. He can see the stars above, twinkling and bright, as though the galaxy around them was not in danger of obliteration.

"The light..." says Ahsoka. Her voice is easy, clear, just as he has heard it a thousand times during his meditations. "Feel the light, Ben."

But this time, unlike so many times previous, Ben Solo does not turn away from her words. He does not push the light from his mind and focus on the mask, the bloody red of his sabre, the title that looms above him, just ever so slightly out of reach. He lets himself think of the light, as he is bid. He thinks of Rey, of his father, of his mother. Of his mistakes.

Another voice rises with the others, another notable figure Ben can hear but not see. "Every Jedi who ever lived, lives in you, Ben." says Qui-Gon Jinn, voice accented but no less familiar. 

Ben breathes heavily. His shirt is torn, dark enough to mask the stain of blood that seeps into the fabric. "The force surrounds you, Ben." says another, somehow the most surprising of all of the voices. It is the one Ben has heard a thousand times, ten thousand times, a hundred thousand times. The voice he has listened to above all, trusted above all.

"Feel the force flowing through you, Ben." calls the voice of Anakin Skywalker, the voice of the fearsome Darth Vader. The voice of his grandfather, the man he has so fully trusted to lead him.

“Feel the Force, Ben.” says Anakin. His voice is light, tempered, not allowing the Sisyphean exertion Ben feels as he shifts upright to bleed into it.

“Feel it, Ben.” he says. “Let it life you.”

He clutches his belly, feeling warm blood slide through his fingers, bloodied bottom lip curled in rage as his thinks of Sidious so far above, alone with Rey. "Let it lift you." urges Anakin. "Rise. Rise. Rise, Ben."

Rey's vision swims with the tears she tries to will away. She turns to face the mouth of the chasm, squinting with determination, as though she could turn back time with dogged stubbornness alone. "Be with me." she murmurs, her eyes pressed tightly closed. She thinks of Luke, of Master Yoda, of all the Jedi she had always heard tales of.

She thinks of Ben most of all, the skills she had learned from him, of the things she had seen inside his mind, the pain, the sadness, the loneliness, how a man so vastly different from her somehow held a perfect mirror of her own mind.

"Be with me." she whispers.

Mist rose in swirls of icy fog, swarming the air with a deathly chill that raises the hair on the back of her arms as gooseflesh rushes down her skin. For a moment she had thought...

It was as though something called her attention there, pulled her to look upon it. But with a vast and sickening disappointment Rey she was met only with jagged rock and icy mist, too painful a reminder of the man she had watched fade away all too quickly within.

She swallowed down a sob, feeling as though her throat had been stuffed with rough-spun cotton, and turned to face the man at the forefront of the room. He laughed cruelly, his skin a sickly green hue, so creased with age that it seemed thin as paper. 

But there! She’s sure of it now, for her instincts have not failed her yet. A vibration that sweeps through her, a niggling tickle, as the pull within her grows, as though a hook were pulling at the inside of her belly, urging her to turn back.

She turns in time to find a hand appearing at the ledge. Bloody fingers, long and thick, callused from so long wielding a blade. The voices at the forefront of his mind grow louder, near deafening, as the last Skywalker rises from the pit that had been thought strong enough to defeat him.

"We stand behind you, Ben." insists Qui-Gon Jinn, firm. Rey watches as Ben summons himself up to his full height, and though his face is bloodied and his gait is stuttered by a heavy limp, his expression has never been more resolute.

Rey fights a smile, a pleased tear rolling down her cheek. Pleasure bubbles within her as she finds the fall has not killed him after all, and she can feel warm relief surge in her belly and twist through her, and as Ben crosses the cave to stand at her side, his mind once more begins to swarm with voices— though now he is not the only to hear.

"Rise in the force." says Master Yoda. Rey's eyes widen as she tries to place the sound, her head swiveling to peer behind her in confusion, but when she meets Ben’s eyes, finding them calm and sincere, shw understands.

Ahead of them the gaunt face of Sidious has fallen at the sight of Ben's return and Rey cannot help but feel pleasure at the sight, at the heavy set of the mans brow and the downturn of his lip. She knows what will come next, and from the expression on his weathered face before them, she is not the only one.

Ben’s fingers twitch at his side. A vibration fills the room, the lightsaber that had been thrown clear across the chasm beginning to tremble where it lay.

"Rise." says Obi-Wan, Rey nearly flinching at the volume of his voice. It is as though he stands in the room, as though he understands what is to come, what they are to face.

All at once the chamber flies apart with sound, echoing with the ruckus sounds of battle. From the armada above that has been launched into actor to the bolts of lightning that fly from Palpatine's fingertips, the next voice that comes to her is nearly drowned out, and Rey strains to hear.

"Rise!" says Qui-Gon, shouting now.

Crags of black stone crash around them where they crumble under the violence of Sidious’ lightning. But they so not flinch, do now fall back and cower under the sheer violence. Ben stands tall at her side, trembling, injured, blood dripping from his brow like tears of ruby, but his eyes are angry and his anger is lethal.

Another voice now, a voice which has been at the back of Ben's mind for longer than he can recall. "In the heart of the Jedi lies their strength." says Kanan, voice is clear, powerful, ringing in their ears sharp as a bell. Rey lifts her blade, knees bent as she assumes the position Ben has been on the receiving end of more times than he can bear to think of.

He extends his hand to the side, feeling the vibration of the Force lance off the tips of his fingertips like pins and needles. A sabre flies into his open hand, the weight of cold metal familiar to Ben in a way nothing else had been since that night so long ago at the Temple.

With a flick of his wrist Ben deflects the violet bolts of lightning that Sidious had concentrated upon them, stepping in front of Rey in an effort to shield her from the attack, deflecting the jolts so they crash back into the wall beside their master.

"Rise." says Obi-Wan. Ben can feel his presence in the Force and, even without turning, he knows she can feel him too, can hear him, can hear the generations of Jedi that speak directly to them.

Ben Solo smirks, the same smile his father bad become infamous for, as Rey comes to stand at his side, wielding his grandfather's lightsabre with an ease that has warmth flooding Ben’s stomach in a way he can’t quite understand.

Palpatine is shaken, the creases of age in his cheeks deepening as his frown does, and Ben can only feel pride. Pride in Rey, pride in his mother, pride in his own abilities, pride in the Jedi that stand at their sides and lend their strength.

"Ben...” Luke Skywalker says to his nephew, voice echoing along the crags of black stone. “The force will be with you."

Rey staves off the next attack, gritting her teeth as she holds her own, boots digging into the sandy dirty beneath as she braces herself. She stalks closer, predatory, a sneer on her face as she staves off another attack. Ben follows her lead and together they come before Sidious' twisted throne.

Ben can feel it, the pull of the Force, the strength of the Jedi, the courage of his mother, the bravery of his father, the resilience of his grandfather, the outrage of the fallen Jedi. He can feel it all and infinitely more, can hear them speak and feel their energy, as though they stood at their sides like silent sentries.

Another voice has Ben's eyes burning, mouth twisting and when his mother speaks, her voice is as clear and bright as it had been the last time she spoke to him, as though she stood proud and brave just beside him, leading her own attacks on the man who had caused her so much pain. "Always." she says.

Into Ben solo's hand lands another saber, the activated blade bright as the silver-blue moonlight that slants in from above. Rey watches him, pride etched on her face as surprise fills her eyes. She laughs as Palpatine falters, spots of colour high on his lifeless cheeks.

"I am all the Sith." Sidious spits, seething, as though reminding himself of power he does not feel.

The last Skywalker lifts his gaze to meet the Emperor's clouded eyes. "And I," Ben Solo says from his place beside Rey, and lifts his mother's lightsaber. "Am all the Jedi."

They had been brought to him so that he might feed off their power, sap their strength and take it for himself. Their coming together had been meant to be their undoing.

But instead of weakening the world, as Sidious had so painstakingly planned, instead of remaking the world in his vision of cruelty and horror, they had only strengthen each other, had only worked together. They who were meant to give up their strength to regain his power, to be used to restore the legacy he had built upon the backs of a thousand dead Jedi.

But instead they stand together, the Last Skywalker and the Jedi from Jakku, two halves of the dyad that had been birthed by the Force and nurtured by fate, two halves of the same whole. And it is with their final blow, with three crossed sabres and a legion of Jedi at their back, that Sidious is finally fallen, finally destroyed in so complete a way that no come back could ever be possible. 

Ben collapses, sapped of strength, and Rey is at his side. She rests a hand upon his shoulder, fingers spread as she once more demonstrates the true extent of her power, sealing every wound that dotted his body, every bruise that marred his skin and blurred his vision.

He’s overcome, unable to temper the pleasure and happiness and pure, unfiltered love that pours from him. And just as he opens his mouth to speak, he finds Rey has found something else to occupy his lips.

Her kiss is deep and tender, encompassing every emotion she cannot find the words to say, every meaning she hopes to convey. Her fingers brush across his bare cheek and she smiles as she finds the skin unmarred by the scar she had on e given him, her smile only widening as he pulls her closer, brings her into the comfort and protection of the ring of his arms.

Time passes in a way Ben doesn’t care to count, content to feel only her lips upon his, her palms on his cheeks, her hair soft as silk as it falls through his fingers, pulled loose from the buns he had so often seen her in by the exertion of the battle.

He watches her when she finally pulls away, memorising every inch of her face, every dark freckle splashed across her cheeks like constellations, every expression, every emotion that floods her eyes as she looks upon him.

“Will you come with me?” he asks softly, offering his hand and his whole hand too. “Will you join me?”

Rey swallows hard and just as Ben begins to feel the crushing weight of loneliness begin to press down upon him, her hand presses into his. “I will.” she says after a moment. Her hand is rough and firm from so many years working in the desserts of the hateful planet she would never again have to return to, so much smaller in his hand that he feels as though he might hurt her. “Ben’s hand...As I’ve always wanted to.”

**Author's Note:**

> cried my way through this. no regrets.
> 
> you can also find me on [twitter](https://mobile.twitter.com/jewishbensolo) or [tumblr! 💕](http://oberynmartell.tumblr.com)


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